Green Is Not a One-Party-Only Color

Feb 06, 2008

While Democrats were
almost twice as likely as Republicans to believe that global warming is
a serious problem and a threat to all life on the planet, on average,
they perform only about 15 percent more "green" actions than
Republicans. For example, 65 percent of those surveyed who always vote
Republican and 71 percent of those who always vote Democrat said they
are actively reducing energy use in their homes.

Regardless of political persuasion, people who believed that climate
change is a danger, and who believed that we can combat it, were
engaging in more activities to protect the environment. According to
the survey, adults who held these beliefs strongly engaged in 60
percent more environmental actions than adults who did not.

"These data tell us that in some important ways, climate change is
not the partisan issue we see every day in the media," said Ed Maibach,
director of the Center of Excellence in Climate Change Communication
Research at George Mason University and a member of the team that
conducted the survey. "People across the political spectrum who see the
serious risks and feel they can do something to stop climate change are
more likely to be taking action today."

While more than half of the adults surveyed agreed that "global
warming is a very serious problem," the survey showed surprising
numbers of people who were undecided. One-quarter to one-third of
adults were essentially undecided as to the dangers posed by global
warming and our ability to combat it.

"We need to do a better job of giving these people useful information about global warming," Maibach said.

In addition, young people's beliefs about global warming tend to be
similar to their parents' beliefs, especially in families where the
child reported having a close relationship with his or her parents.
When children and their parents agreed that global warming poses a
great danger and shared a strong sense of our ability to combat it, the
family engaged in more environmental activities, as compared to
families where parents and children disagreed.

The surveys, conducted as part of Porter Novelli's ConsumerStyles
and YouthStyles surveys, were fielded in late spring and summer of
2007. Porter Novelli's Styles surveys are developed to provide a deeper
level of insight into what motivates consumers to act.